I do think we're simply more aware nowadays too. Back when I was growing up... nobody was on dog forums and communicating about their dogs as much as alot of people do today, so we know alot more.
I mean... when our childhood Golden Retriever would start puking, we wouldn't really worry about it and go searching online looking for reasons why. She just did it, and would get better. She got sickly by the age of 7 or 8 and began getting bumps and tumors all over her, so we just took her to the vet, and they did what they did and fixed her up until she got sick again, and eventually died at age 10. She was fed crappy food all her life and I can't help but wonder if had she been on a better diet w/ more exercise, would she have been healthier, or was it just genetics? Back then, 10yrs old was the normal lifespan for a Golden. We didn't know anything about proper training, dog health, or do any of our own research. We just took her to the vet when necessary and that was that.
When you come to a website such as YT, you get alot of newbies who were googling problems with their Yorkies... so it ends up looking like there is a ton of sick Yorkies, but most people don't just google "my dog is feeling good, yorkie forum" LOL... if you get what I'm saying. |